🍿 In 4 years Sammo Hung directed his first 7 movies. 6 of these were ‘historical kung fu’ genre. After 1981’s The Prodigal Son he didn’t direct another movie in that genre for 11 years.
Largely this was due to market forces. After the early 80s Hong Kong cinema mostly focused on modern-day films. But maybe Sammo felt like he’d said what he needed to say in the genre. The Prodigal Son certainly feels like a fitting cap on Hung’s version of these films. Amazing cast, beautifully shot, wonderful choreography and a confusing clash of tones. It’s the canonical Sammo Hung Historical Kung Fu film, honestly.
After watching Sammo’s early films, Prodigal Son’s casting really stood out for me. It features a lot of new faces, whereas many of Sammo’s previous films featured the same folks over and over.
Sammo had know Yuen Biao and Lam Ching-ying forever, but had never really featured the latter. Ching-ying shows up a ton in early Sammo movies, but usually as a minor character or nameless heavy. I’m pretty sure Prodigal Son was his first starring role. And it was one of his few non-Vampire related leading roles. He was such a talented performer and Prodical Son gave him a chance to shine.
Also new is Frankie Chan Fan-Kei. He’d been around HK film for awhile but as a composer. Until 1981 his film credits came from composing scores, mostly for Shaw Brothers. I’m guessing he and Sammo had crossed paths at Shaw and later Sammo had him write scores for Knockabout and others. Then, when Frankie Chan wanted to switch in to acting, Sammo gave him a high-profile shot as the semi-villain of Prodigal Son. And I’m glad he did. Normally this role would have gone to Leung Kar-yan and he would have done a great job. But Frankie Chan brings a very different energy to the movie and it helps the film stand out.
